Reflections Upon the Eve of Ordination

On Sunday 3 May, Jamie McMorrin was ordained a deacon at the Scots College in Rome. We asked the young man from Kinghorn in Fife for his personal reflections upon the eve of ordination, as he prepares to take one step closer to the priesthood.

At the very beginning of the rite of ordination, easily passed over in preference for some of the more dramatic moments of the ceremony, is a very simple exchange in which my name will be called and I will step forward. Although simple and, in a certain sense, practical, for me this moment is rich in meaning: the Archbishop will call me by name to serve Jesus and the Church in St Andrews and Edinburgh, confirming aloud the calling I heard in my heart many years ago.

He will then go on to explain what following this call will mean: a life of charity, lived out in celibate chastity, in obedience to him and his successors and nourished and strengthened in prayer, focused especially on Our Lord in the Eucharist. As a deacon, my life will be dedicated to ministry at the altar, the proclamation of the Gospel and the service of all people, especially the poor and the sick. Next year, I will return to the Archdiocese to be ordained as a priest and live out the rest of my life in the service of the Church in our part of Scotland. While I have loved my time in seminary here in Rome, this prospect fills me with a great excitement and a sense of urgency to “get to work!”

Over the years I have spent thinking and praying about the Lord’s call, and especially this weekend, I have come more and more to experience for myself the truth of Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to young people to “open wide the doors to Christ”: that when the Lord calls us to follow him, he “takes away nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great”. Rather, I have begun more and more to experience for myself the “joy of the Gospel” that Pope Francis calls us all to proclaim, and which shone out in the lives of the priests who inspired me as a young man: an extraordinary sense of peace, happiness and purpose which comes from encountering Jesus and handing your life over to him.”

Faith Magazine

July - August 2015

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